Cape Town - Themba Zwane reckons Mamelodi Sundowns still have a shot at retaining the Premiership title, despite suffering a 2-1 defeat to fellow contenders Kaizer Chiefs on Saturday.
The two teams went into the half-time break deadlocked at 1-1 after Bernard Parker had cancelled out Khama Billiat's 26th-minute opener at the FNB Stadium.
But Chiefs came away with three vital points when Bangaly Soumahoro scored an own-goal 12 minutes from time, as the Brazilians were made to pay for their numerous missed chances.
Zwane was one of the guilty parties as he failed to hit the target early in the second half after being played in by Percy Tau, while Itumeleng Khune denied him in a one-on-one moments later.
The 27-year-old winger felt that Sundowns should have come away with something from the match after they dominated for large spells, but admitted their wastefulness proved costly.
"Well, our defeat was little unfortunate for us considering the fact that we were in full control for the most part of the game," he told Vodacom Soccer.
"We also created quite a number of scoring chances, but unfortunately failed to convert.
"Yes, Chiefs took the game to us and were a better team, but I believe we would have won the game had it not been for our missed chances and that unfortunate own-goal by Bangaly."
Sundowns are seven points adrift of the league summit in fifth place, although they do have games in hand on all their rivals, and Zwane believes Pitso Mosimane's side primed for a successful title defence.
"We need to quickly put this defeat behind us and shift our focus to our next game against on Celtic on Wednesday," he added.
"With 12 league games still to play, we are still much in the league title race and still have what it takes to fight for our title defence."
The Brazilians will next face Golden Arrows in a Nedbank Cup last-16 clash at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday.
Kick off is at 15:00.